Venezuela’s SC Imposes Fines Pegged In State-backed Crypto

Nov 06, 2018 at 22:54

The Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela has ordered moral damages to be paid in Petros, the country’s national cryptocurrency.

In a Facebook post, the country’s top court said the case involved a citizen named María Elena Matos, whose disability was confirmed by the National Institute for Prevention as having resulted from an engagement during work at the National Institute of Agriculture Research, an attached unit of the Ministry of Agriculture.

For this, the agency was ordered to compensate Matos “with moral damages, payable in bolivars, equivalent to 266 Petros (PTR 266), according to the value of Petro for the time of payment.”

Last August, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Petro will have an equivalent value of 3,600 sovereign bolivars.

At the same time the order was made, Venezuela’s high court also ordered to implement the Constituent Decree on Cryptoactives and the Petro Sovereign Cryptocurrency “to guarantee an effective judicial protection and protect the value of the amounts that are set as compensation for moral damage.”

This is to ensure that Petro’s value is fixed to what the government has set in terms of bolivars.

On Monday, the Venezuelan government launched the Petro savings plan which enables citizens to purchase Petros and save them up through a certificate to be awarded to them.
The first phase will initially roll out 4 million Petros which is equivalent to 14,400 million sovereign bolivars and $240 million.

The government’s savings plan website reportedly stated that “All users can participate in the hours from Monday to Saturday from 6:00 AM to 10:59 PM.” It also noted that the minimum purchase is 0.01 Petro, which is equivalent to 38.95 bolivar.

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